1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to weatherstrips for vehicle closures and more particularly to a so-called center weatherstrip for providing a seal between a front door window and a rear quarter window of a 2-door hardtop model or between a front door window and a rear door window of a 4-door hardtop model.
2. Description of the Prior Art
FIG. 2 shows, by way of example, a typical center weatherstrip 10 for use in a 2-door hardtop model. With additional reference to FIG. 1, the center weatherstrip 10 is mounted on the vehicle body at a location between a window glass panel 12 of a front door 14 and a rear quarter window glass panel 16 and includes a center sash 18 and a resilient strip 20. The center sash 18 is cemented to the front end portion 16a of the rear quarter window glass panel 16. The resilient strip 20 is in part fitted in the center sash 18 and includes a lip portion 20a sealingly engageable with the rear end portion 12a of the front door window glass panel 12.
The center weatherstrip 10 has the following disadvantages. That is, the center sash 18 has a substantially H-shaped section with respect to a horizontal plane and is constructed to receive on a first side thereof the rear quarter window glass panel 16 and on the other side thereof part of the resilient strip 20. Due to this center sash 18, the interval Lo between the front door window glass panel 12 and the rear quarter window glass panel 16 inevitably becomes large, resulting in the deteriorated appearance. Furthermore, the center sash 18 needs to have a considerable width Ho. This tends to result in a defective seal between the upper end portion of the rear quarter window glass panel 16 and a body side weatherstrip (not shown) mounted on a vehicle body roof side portion B due to the considerable difference in thickness between a part having the center sash and a part having no center sash of the upper end portion of the rear quater window glass panel. Still furthermore, since the center sash 18 is exposed to viewer, it needs to have a refined appearance, inevitably requiring an expensive material such as stainless steel or plated steel sheet and therefore resulting in an expensive cost.
In order to solve the foregoing problems, various efforts have heretofore been made, but no center weatherstrip has been proposed in the art until now which is constructed to overcome the foregoing problems without deteriorating the practical usefulness. For example, it was considered to reduce the width Ho of the center sash 18. However, this inevitably makes the base portion 20b of the resilient strip 20 too weak or too flexible, disabling the lip portion 20a from being urged against the front door window glass panel 12 with a predetermined strength. It was also considered to reduce the interval Lo by reducing the interval L.sub.1. However, this results in the requirement that the front door window glass panel 12 or the rear quarter window glass panel 16 slide so acruately along a predetermined locus as to permit substantially no deviation therefrom. Due to production variations such as caused in mounting a regulator (not shown) to the front door 14 or to a vehicle body rear quarter panel portion 22, it is practically impossible to meet the requirement.